Din, Une Trés Belle Négresse 1
- Photographer
- Mickalene Thomas, American, born 1971
- Date
- 2012, printed 2015
- Material
- Chromogenic print
- Classification
- Photographs
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 60 x 50 in. (152.4 x 127 cm)
- Credit Line
- Funds given by Margery Campbell Fort in honor of Jeffrey Fort’s birthday
- Rights
- © Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Object Number
- 134:2015
NOTES
In this photograph, Mickalene Thomas captured the strength of the woman’s gaze, her halo of dark hair, and her made-up lips. The vibrant patterns of her dress and the wall textile background compliment her features. The model, Din, was a medical student who regularly posed for Thomas, yet the portrait depicts a character created by the artist through her staging of the setting and costume. Thus, the image becomes a more universal representation of a woman exuding sensual beauty, confidence, and self-awareness.
Thomas’s title, French for "Din, A Very Beautiful Black Woman," acknowledges an earlier era with its use of the historically charged term “négresse.” Yet the title demonstrates a desire to create empowering associations with such words. In particular, Thomas employed a visual vocabulary that looks back to the 1970s—an era defined by powerful new images of Black beauty found in popular media.